Middleism.org

Preterism: Is the Past

The initial ideas of Preterism (not full
preterism) was developed in the beliefs that some prophecies were
past or in the past, having their spiritual completion and now
historical facts, mainly concerning the Olivet discourse. Those who
accepted the concept were known to be
Spanish Jesuit Luis De
Alcazar (1554–1613) who wrote a commentary titled Vestigio Arcani
Sensus in Apocaplysi or Investigation of the Hidden Sense of
the Apocalypse and was published a year after his death, is the
first known study for the formation of a spiritual interpretation
that demonstrated many of the prophecies of the New Testament,
particularly Revelation, was fulfilled in the spiritual sense. In
this work dedicated to the Catholic Church, he made a new attempt to
interpret the Apocalypse by this Preterist scheme of exposition,
that is, by the thesis that the prophecies were fulfilled in the
past using the means of the Analogy of scriptures as a foundation for interpretation to
counter the claims of those who were teaching the Roman Catholic
Church was the Beast system in Revelation with the Pope being the
anti-Christ in some future time scenario.
In our day, Full Preterism is the belief that
all prophecies of the Old Testament and of the new, including the
book of Revelation were completely fulfilled in A.D. 70. The
historical position of the church is still a
future coming which is the source of the continuing heated debate.
Dennis Swanson documents the brief history and source of the recent
Preterist doctrines
relates the primary resources comes from J. S. Russell,
and his book Parousia,
written about 1870. Russell rejected the idea of
fulfillment and still
looked forward to the final judgment and the new heavens and earth.
Swanson noted about Full Preterism,
This novel position initially began to form within some Church of
Christ assemblies in Ohio through the ministries of "C. D. Beagle
and his son-in-law, Max King."

The view has spread beyond the Church
of Christ denomination through several writers and speakers, notably
Edward E. Stevens, John Noè, and Randall E. Otto. For a while, the
HP novelty
seemed to be simply an internecine debate within the larger
Preterist sphere, so much so that outside those circles very few
were aware of the issue. The main sphere of debate remains in the
internet and you tube videos that propagate the view. There is no
credited university or college that promotes the view or
conservative institution that endorses the view. Among some Liberal
schools, degrees are given to Preterists ideas based on their
spiritual nature such as John’s Noe’s doctoral thesis that the Bible
never speaks of a second coming. primary teacher that has picked up the mantle of Max King, is namely Don
Preston. While Ed Stevens remains
involved the two have parted company in their separate yet
distinctive teachings that have
fragmented the Preterist world.
Browne makes the accusation against the
Preterist based in I Timothy 2: 16-18
But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead
people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread
like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have
swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already
happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.
Browne and Swanson both argue that the crime of
these two is arguing for a “spiritual resurrection” since they could
clearly see the bodies still in their graves. The Preterist argument
is basically then that the error was one of timing since they
believe Paul teaches a “spiritual body” resurrection that does not
require a body to come out of the grave, which means they believe
Paul never taught a bodily resurrection of the saints at the second
coming. According to Preterist doctrine the body had nothing to do
with the evidence of or for the resurrection. This presupposes their
assumption is correct.
They see
the event of A.D. 70 in Revelation. Among
Preterists there are very few scholars, mostly they have
abandoned their formal theological education in favor of the
preterists paradigm. They tend to reject formal education and
seek to find their own interpretation which has created a
multitude of views. “Israel Only” is accepted by very few, yet
growing as it teaches that the New Covenant ended in AD 70 and
it was all about the remnant of Israel only. No one can be saved
after that date and everything Paul discusses is about and for
Israel only, and Gentiles are the lost ten tribes of the
diaspora. This is only found on the Internet as no book is
written on the subject but slowly being accepted. Many have
fallen into universalism, anhilationism, and soul sleep. Their
claim is to have no creed yet, this becomes their creed. In
their rejection of Orthodoxy, they deny three fundamental
principles of beliefs that make Christianity what it is; bodily
resurrection, Christ existing in bodily form, and the visible
bodily return of Christ. These beliefs place Preterism squarely
outside of Orthodox teaching into the realm of heretical
teachings and the cults. Many current Preterists claim that
their eyes were opened when they read scriptures and came across
time statements, such as “This Generation”, or passages that use
the Greek word “Mello” to indicate what is “about to” happen
“quickly”.

Full/Hyper Preterism

Is divided into two basic classes; the literalist who believe all
events happened literally yet reject any type of Christian testimony
saying it did not. Which essentially means there are no witnesses to
these events taking place.

The "spiritualist" claim
all events happened in the Spiritual realm but also reject early
scholarship that rejects that paradigm.

-The millennial reign
of Christ occurred from A.D. 33 to 70.

- The Old Covenant Law
of Mosses ended in AD 70.

- The Old Heavens and Earth passed
away and we are living under the New Heavens and Earth as described
in Revelation 21-22.

Partial Preterism

Partial preterism is the belief that some prophecies were
fulfilled, yet many are left to be fulfilled such as the second
coming and judgment. Some believe that A.D. was a "second coming",
and yet a future one also awaits us. They contend for the early date of Revelation
writing to satisfy the belief that the Olivet and the Revelation of
John are of the same events.

Proponents: DeMar, Gentry,

Chronology;

The following books are core to the Preterists theology as there is no Seminary or
Graduate school that is producing Preterist
theology so Preston and others are forced to invent their
own from scratch.

Kenneth Gentry Book is foundational for the
full/hyper/partial Preterist to
prove the early date of Revelation authorship.

THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSMENT

Preston's
newest book becomes a fiasco in logic. REVIEW

Preston seeks to prove the Second Coming is an invisible event.

DeMar
seeks to present complete case for partial preterism that
makes the events of Revelation half fulfilled in A.D. 70.

Preston seeks to prove the Last days was in A.D. 70 when all
prophecy was fulfilled and we are left with the idea the Bible
never tells us thing about our "last Days"..

IBV vs. CBV

Preterism has divided into two factions; IBV of Ed Steven's
and some others, is that the literal Resurrection of the dead
happened in A.D. 70, but they define the Resurrection of the
dead as Souls coming out of Hades into heaven and into a new
body. CBV, believes the resurrection was the corporate Body of
Christ be raised together into the heavenly place, being set in
the New Heaven and Earth and receiving the full salvation, and
has nothing to do with dead body coming out of the ground.

Covenant Creation

A branch off Hyper-Preterism, a third category, adapts a
total spiritual interpretation of scriptures and sees no literal
fulfillment of any events but all spiritual fulfillment. J.L
Vaughn and Timothy Martin, the authors of Covenant Creation. are
leading proponents. In their view Genesis is not about the
creation of the world but believes Moses uses imagery of
creation to describe the first covenant with man. In his
assertion, Adam was not the first man created and death existed
in the garden..

Deeper into Error

In any system based on error, because of its foundation being off
it continues to produce more errors as people are unable to
accurately divide the word of God.

Error always leads to
more error because the person is unable to recognize where their
beliefs create inconsistency. In many cases they will argue against
a futurist by citing verses they think contradict another verse.
This is what we call cognitive dissonance. They can read a verse
that talks about Christ dwelling in heaven in Bodily form (Col
2:9) but will go to John 17 and try to prove he is a "spirit'
since he return to the glory he had with the father before he
descended as a man.

The Hermeneutics of Preterism changes the meaning of words to
fit their paradigm. They redefine "audience relevance" to suggest we
are reading someone else's mail and it does not pertain to us.
It demands illogically that "Timing dictates the nature",
meaning since time statements demands a first century coming and
Paul teaches a physical appearing, therefor they have to change
Paul's teaching to mean an invisible appearing despite the fact Paul
used the very technical Greek word "Epiphaneia" which means "to be
made visible". As we watch the system seems to be self
destructing as it divides over its many many private
interpretations.